Our favorite rooster, who is fairly new, came to us with a swollen and sore leg. I thought it had been from transport, so gave him a quiet place to rest and keep an eye on it. After a week, it only seemed to be getting worse. I took him out today to get a look at it, and it was very swollen and had several areas that seemed very fluid filled. Ive dealt with similar issues assisting farm vets before so I decided to see if he would tolerate lancing it to get a better look. I BARELY touched it with a sterile scalpel blade, and it was like someone turning on a garden faucet. The rooster never budged, wasn't panting or distressed, and was only concerned at first when touching the swollen leg (before draining at all) since it was sore and after the thin bloodless pus like fluid drained out he didn't even care about that. So I started gently feeling for lumps, thinking maybe there was a splinter or other foreign object that somehow found its way into his leg. I found none. What I did find was a very hard yellow core surrounded by thinker puss. In fact, there were several of these I located and removed. (Our roo was fine the whole time) After this, his leg was almost normal size and after cleaning it up with disinfectant and gently wrapping he even puts weight on and uses it now. What I am curious about, is what these cores are or if anyone else has seen this before? I took a pic of the cores, which are a little dirty from falling on the ground but shown below, but not the leg or process. I was too focused on helping the poor guy once I saw how bad it was to pause and take pics. I think if I can keep the infection at bay, he will be fine now. He seems MUCH happier with his leg at this point and is eating/drinking normally. Also interested in any other information that may help this guy. He is my sons favorite rooster right now, and one of the absolute gentlest birds I have seen. He will snuggle into your lap and nestle his head into your arm. My son loves him. Hoping to integrate him into the therapy program soon, so he will likely be headed to the vet if the problem is not resolved by this procedure. Unfortunately, it will likely be a long and costly trip from where we are to where a vet that can work with him is. Thanks in advance.

Edited to add that this bird is an older bird, id say at least 2 years old, and the cores were all located between the top of the back toe and where the feathers meet his leg skin. None were on the bottoms/pads of his feet at all. Also, these core have not been rinsed. This is how they looked. He bled very little, mostly there was puslike fluid, which did concern me until I saw that he uses the foot now so there is feeling still.

I'm not certain what you are dealing with here, but I would be tempted to slather his leg with antibiotic ointment until it is healed.

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Absolutely. That went on under the gauze and vetwrap after it was disinfected and the material removed. I will keep checking it, cleaning it, and replacing the ointment etc while keeping an eye on it. Just getting that junk out of there made a huge difference. All he was wanted to do was lay down in one place. I was expecting something like bumblefoot or injury from a splinter or something, but this has obviously been going on for a long time before we got him. When I redress the wound tomorrow I will get another pic. I will be keeping a photolog of the progress anyway so I can be sure to catch any major changes quickly.

My only thought on this is that it may have started as bumblefoot high on the foot/near the ankle area, which spread all the way up his leg due to lack of treatment before we got him. Still not sure, but thats my best hypothesis. I should have gotten pictures before, but he was so uncomfortable I had to do something to help him and didn't really think of much else.

Thank you for your input. Any idea how long it takes for it to harden like that? Possible causes? I am so used to seeing wounds present with any kind of leg injury, other than breaks, that this has me stumped. I really couldn't find an injury one, other than slightly misshapen toes, etc, but he is at least 2-3 years old so I figured that more from age than anything. And his other foot seems fine, even with the toes shaped a little less uniformly than young chickens.

Just checked on him again and hes the happiest hes been since we got him. Feeling like hes got a good chance of recovery now, but really interested in figuring out what this might have been too.

Quote: I had a pea hen that had something similar... Her's I think started with a foot injury, and I think the infection spread up her leg to to her hock and the tendon sheath. Her's never hardened, because I drained it before it had a chance to, but no doubt that it would have hardened. Nasty pus, got about 6 ml out, put on antibiotics and she recovered.

I had a pea hen that had something similar... Her's I think started with a foot injury, and I think the infection spread up her leg to to her hock and the tendon sheath. Her's never hardened, because I drained it before it had a chance to, but no doubt that it would have hardened. Nasty pus, got about 6 ml out, put on antibiotics and she recovered.

-Kathy

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It makes sense the more I think about it. He was in a flock of maybe 25-30 birds, which included 6 or 7 roosters total. Its possible he was injured while fighting (one of his spurs is broken and the other is 1.5"-2" long) and its been long enough ago the injury healed on the surface but became infected beneath the skin. That's the theory I am going with now anyway unless a better one surfaces.

Think the Antibiotic ointment will be enough, or should I seek one to place in the water? If so, what oral antibiotics are safe for chickens?

Our favorite rooster, who is fairly new, came to us with a swollen and sore leg. I thought it had been from transport, so gave him a quiet place to rest and keep an eye on it. After a week, it only seemed to be getting worse. I took him out today to get a look at it, and it was very swollen and had several areas that seemed very fluid filled. Ive dealt with similar issues assisting farm vets before so I decided to see if he would tolerate lancing it to get a better look. I BARELY touched it with a sterile scalpel blade, and it was like someone turning on a garden faucet. The rooster never budged, wasn't panting or distressed, and was only concerned at first when touching the swollen leg (before draining at all) since it was sore and after the thin bloodless pus like fluid drained out he didn't even care about that. So I started gently feeling for lumps, thinking maybe there was a splinter or other foreign object that somehow found its way into his leg. I found none. What I did find was a very hard yellow core surrounded by thinker puss. In fact, there were several of these I located and removed. (Our roo was fine the whole time) After this, his leg was almost normal size and after cleaning it up with disinfectant and gently wrapping he even puts weight on and uses it now. What I am curious about, is what these cores are or if anyone else has seen this before? I took a pic of the cores, which are a little dirty from falling on the ground but shown below, but not the leg or process. I was too focused on helping the poor guy once I saw how bad it was to pause and take pics. I think if I can keep the infection at bay, he will be fine now. He seems MUCH happier with his leg at this point and is eating/drinking normally. Also interested in any other information that may help this guy. He is my sons favorite rooster right now, and one of the absolute gentlest birds I have seen. He will snuggle into your lap and nestle his head into your arm. My son loves him. Hoping to integrate him into the therapy program soon, so he will likely be headed to the vet if the problem is not resolved by this procedure. Unfortunately, it will likely be a long and costly trip from where we are to where a vet that can work with him is. Thanks in advance.

Edited to add that this bird is an older bird, id say at least 2 years old, and the cores were all located between the top of the back toe and where the feathers meet his leg skin. None were on the bottoms/pads of his feet at all. Also, these core have not been rinsed. This is how they looked. He bled very little, mostly there was puslike fluid, which did concern me until I saw that he uses the foot now so there is feeling still.

Came out in tact.

Tried to mush a few open here.

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It's pus. Chickens have solid pus or it solidifies. He likely got poked somehow and infection set in. I hope you got it all. Since it's a rooster and you don't have to worry about throwing away eggs, I would get some Pen G from your local feedstore (located in their refrigerator) and give him injections for about 5 days. That should help fight what may be left if there is any infection left. The dose is no more than a tenth of a ml, very small. So you need a 1 ml syringe and an 18 gauge needle. The daily dose is injected in muscle.